Questions & Answers about Am Anfang war alles neu.
Why is it Am Anfang and not just An Anfang?
Am is a short combination of an + dem. Just like the prepositions you are practicing right now (vor, nach, bei), the preposition an requires the dative case when it describes a fixed point in time. Because Anfang is a masculine noun (der Anfang), its dative
Why does alles use the singular verb war instead of the plural waren?
Just like the English word "everything," the German word alles is treated as a single, singular concept. That is why it pairs with the singular verb war (was) instead of the plural waren (were).
Why doesn't the adjective neu have an ending here, like neues?
When an adjective comes after the verb (in this case, war) to describe the subject of the sentence, it stays in its basic form and does not take any extra endings. You only add endings to adjectives when they sit directly in front of a noun, like in ein neues Buch (a new book).
I learned that spoken German mostly uses the perfect tense for the past. Why use war here?
While it is true that conversational German relies heavily on the spoken past tense (like ich habe gemacht), the verb sein (to be) is a huge exception. Native speakers almost always use its simple past form, war, even in very casual, everyday speech.
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